In App Race With Archrival Tencent, Cabbies Are Lavished With Beer

BEIJING—Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said on Sunday that it plans to start the process of listing on a U.S. stock exchange. At home, meanwhile, China's biggest e-commerce company is engaged in another growth pursuit: trying to get Beijing taxi drivers to use its cab-hailing application.

The taxi-app struggle is one of many aimed at the next frontier in China's quickly evolving Internet-services market, as competitors seek to win over the country's 500 million smartphone-wielding consumers and tap the massive revenue they...